Looks can be deceiving

The gunpowder painting, Frolicking on Ice in the Galaxy, by Cai, and a replica of an ancient scroll that inspired Cai to create the piece attract attention. CHINA DAILY

One of the most impressive spaces within MAP is the X Hall located in the center of the museum. Unlike traditional exhibition spaces, this hall has a height of 34 meters that spans from the underground level to the fourth story.

The ongoing exhibition at this hall is by well-known Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang, who created an installation to suit this unique space.

Titled Encounter With the Unknown, the kinetic light installation was inspired by the nature-based cosmology of the Mayan civilization and was a result of "a boy's fantasy for the space, with aliens, UFOs, and gravity-defying dreams", says the 64-year-old artist from Quanzhou of Fujian province.

MAP director Zhu Yaping says that she wanted the museum to be "the first stop in China for all internationally acclaimed artists, and a place all Chinese artists would hate to miss". Zhu visited Cai's studio in New York a few years ago and convinced him to present his large-scale exhibition Cai Guoqiang: Odyssey and Homecoming at the museum's opening. The exhibition features 119 of Cai's signature gunpowder works as well as his first virtual reality work, Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City.